. Medieval architecture, its origins and development, with lists of monuments and bibliographies. n the barrel vault, were capable. But the creditof first applying these vital principles to architecture, of per-ceiving though dimly the esthetic and practical uses of whichthey were capable, is all due to Rome. No other structuralinvention of architectural history can outrank in importancethis — not the pendentives of Hagia Sophia, nor even the dis-coveries of XII century France. For the vault we owe to Romeunqualified admiration and gratitude. Unfortunately, no such unstinted praise can be give
. Medieval architecture, its origins and development, with lists of monuments and bibliographies. n the barrel vault, were capable. But the creditof first applying these vital principles to architecture, of per-ceiving though dimly the esthetic and practical uses of whichthey were capable, is all due to Rome. No other structuralinvention of architectural history can outrank in importancethis — not the pendentives of Hagia Sophia, nor even the dis-coveries of XII century France. For the vault we owe to Romeunqualified admiration and gratitude. Unfortunately, no such unstinted praise can be given thearchitectural ornament of the Romans. After the IV century,, Greek architecture underwent a decline. As time wenton, this decline became more and more precipitate, until in the Icentury, , the art, especially in Asia Minor, had sunk to thelowest depth of debasement. The technical execution stillremained fair, but design deserted entirely the severe andthoughtful taste of eai-lier times, and ran riot in every conceiv-able extravagance of florid ornament. Typical of the change 24. III. ^Sectio>»^^^ ROMAN DESIGN was the ever-growing taste for colossal edifices. Temples ofunheard-of size were erected, and those colonnaded streets,miles in length, which later became so typical of Roman Syria,were first laid out. In short, for refinement and delicacy, wassubstituted coarseness aufl display. Now the architects of imperial Rome, in adopting Greekornament, adopted it not from the pure examples of the V cen-tury, but from the late debased types of Asia Minor. The Ro-mans are usually accused of debasing those types still further;as a matter of fact, however, the worst examples of Asia Minorare practically indistinguishable from Roman work. Theseforms the Romans fixed into a cut-and-dried canon from whichminor variations were possible, but no real progress. The orders became the basis of all architectural ornamenta-tion. Columns, originally mere utilitarian props
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecad, booksubjectarchitecture, bookyear1912
